In 1941, Hollywood director Frank Capra was commissioned to make a series of propaganda films for the US war effort. He knew he had his work cut out: he had seen Leni Riefenstahl’sTriumph Of The Will – a staggering, state-of-the-art display of both film-making expertise and Nazi military might. “It scared the hell out of me,” Capra later said. “It fired no gun, dropped no bombs, but as a psychological weapon aimed at destroying the will to resist, it was just as lethal.” How could the Americans possibly compete? Capra’s solution was to turn the enemies’ weapons against them. His resulting seven-film documentary series, Why We Fight, repurposed footage from Triumph Of The Will and other propaganda films to show “our boys” what they were up against. He even copied Riefenstahl’s editing rhythms and rousing use of music. “Let their own films kill them,” Capra said. “Let the enemy prove to our soldiers the enormity of his cause – and the justness of ours.”

Analysts say that a video released by the Islamic State group last month, showing the beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers, took between four and six hours to film, and cost an estimated $200,000.

The propaganda video, released on November 16 and called “Though the Unbelievers Despise It,” shows the simultaneous executions of the Syrian soldiers as well as the beheading of US aid worker and hostage Peter (Abdul Rahman) Kassig.

The US-based terrorism research organization TRAC (Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium) and a UK-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam analyzed the production techniques used to make the video in an effort to identify victims and their killers and to locate the exact location of the brutal killings.

Based on lighting and shadows, the analysts estimated that the video was shot in multiple takes over a four- to six-hour period.

They also noted several inconsistencies in the line-up order of hostages and killers. In certain frames the jihadists can be seen chatting among themselves, passing time between takes.

TRAC said that the professional-quality footage was filmed with multiple high-definition cameras and edited with state-of-the-art software.

Veryan Khan, a TRAC researcher, told TIME magazine that the video would have likely had a director, producer and editor, who may have used storyboards like traditional filmmakers.

Khan pointed out that not only did the executioners posses a certain physical aesthetic, they also represented varying ethnicities and nationalities, a way for the Islamic State to demonstrate the global reach of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Isil jihadists are becoming like the Beatles and other pop idols with British boys wanting to be them and girls wanting to be with them, a senior prosecutor has warned.

Nazir Afzal said “jihadimania” is worse than previously thought and is luring youngsters conned by the image to Syria.

And those who do not managed to travel are a “ticking time bomb” for the security services and police here, he warned.

More than 600 Britons are feared to have travelled to Syria with many joining the terror group Isil.

They include young teenage boys and girls who have either gone to become soldiers or “jihadi brides”.

Isil’s alleged British executioner Mohammed Emwazi was already dubbed “Jihadi John” in reference to the “Beatles” nickname given to him and his fellow British captors by their hostages.

But Mr Afzal said the pop music image is more widespread and risks luring and radicalising many more young Britons.

“The boys want to be like them and the girls want to be with them,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.

“That’s what they used to say about the Beatles and more recently One Direction and Justin Bieber. The propaganda the terrorists put out is akin to marketing, and too many of our teenagers are falling for the image.”

“The extremists treat them in a similar way to sexual groomers – they manipulate them, distance them from their friends and families, and then take them.”

The visual grammar of these films bears close examination. Cantlie first appears talking straight to the viewer, but the angle switches mid-speech, showing him in profile. It’s a technique common to modern documentary and TV interviews, requiring more than one camera or multiple takes. Cantlie’s broadcasts also end with a news-like sign-off: “Join me for the next programme”. In the beheading videos, “Jihadi John” and his masked kidnappers indicate their next victim at the end, as if enticing viewers to stay tuned, in the manner of a reality TV show. Why do this? Isis is trying to make its hostage videos look more professional, more entertaining, even.

The full extent of Isis’s media ambitions can be seen in the output of its “Al Hayat Media Center”. Not to be confused with the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Al Hayat Media is specifically aimed at non-Arabic speakers, particularly younger viewers, and its output is closer to mainstream broadcast standards than anything else Islamic extremism has yet produced. Like a conventional broadcaster, it has its own glossy ident, not dissimilar to that of Al-Jazeera: a teardrop-shaped logo of Arabic script materialising from a digital cascade of water. Its broadcasts invariably feature this logo or a fluttering black-and-white Isis flag in the top corner of the screen. It makes programmes in several languages – primarily German, English and French – and multiple formats, from minute-long, Twitter-friendly “Mujatweets” to an hour-long “documentary” entitled The Flames Of War, which was heralded by its own Hollywood-style trailer. It also publishes audio content and an English-language PDF magazine, called Dabiq.Issue two likened the Caliphate to an “ark” in an apocalyptic “flood”. It illustrated the analogy with images from the recent Hollywood epic Noah.

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The more violent images from The Flames Of War have also been edited into a rapid-fire, steroidal action montage accompanied by a recruitment nashid, or hymn. Again, the implication is that warfare is a real-life Grand Theft Auto. The song lyrics sweep across the screen, karaoke-style in latin-script Arabic and English: “Brothers rise up! Claim your victory! Let’s go! Let’s go for jihad!” It takes a while to register that the song itself is in German.

Brainwashing people into believing or doing things against their own human nature — such as hating or even killing innocents they do not even know — is traditionally done by combining two things: pain and repetition. The conscious infliction of psychological and physical suffering breaks down the person’s resistance to the constantly repeated message.

Totalitarian regimes use this method to reform political dissidents. Armies in less civilized countries use it to create ruthless soldiers, and religious sects all over the world use it to fanaticize their followers.

During numerous sessions with more than a hundred Muslim clients, I found that violence and repetition of religious messages are prevalent in Muslim families.

Muslim culture simply does not have the same degree of understanding of human development as in civilized societies, and physical pain and threats are therefore often the preferred tool to raise children. This is why so many Muslim girls grow up to accept violence in their marriage, and why Muslim boys grow up to learn that violence is acceptable. And it is the main reason why nine out of ten children removed from their parents by authorities in Copenhagen are from immigrant families. The Muslim tradition of using pain and intimidation as part of disciplining children are also widely used in Muslim schools — also in the West.

Combined with countless repetitions of Quranic verses in Islamic schools and families, all this makes it very difficult for children to defend themselves against being indoctrinated to follow the Quran, even if it is against secular laws, logic, and the most basic understanding of compassion.

And as we know from so many psychological studies, whatever a child is strongly influenced by at that age takes an enormous personal effort to change later in life. It is no wonder that Muslims in general, in spite of Islam’s inhumane nature and obvious inability to equip its followers with humor, compassion and other attractive qualities, are stronger in their faith than any other religious group.